In recent years, there is known a tactile transmission technique to transmit various tactile senses such as a sense of pressing, a sense of tracing, or a sense of texture to a user when the user operates a touch panel in an electronic device including a touch panel (for example, see Patent Literature 1).
An electronic device to which such a tactile transmission technique is applied includes a display panel; a touch panel disposed to be opposed to the display panel with a space interposed therebetween; a vibrator provided on a rear surface of the touch panel; and a base that supports the touch panel. The electronic device can transmit various tactile senses to the user by causing flexural vibration of the touch panel according to expansion and contraction motions of the vibrator.
In the electronic device described above, however, the touch panel is disposed to be opposed to the display panel with a space interposed therebetween. Accordingly, when a user looks into the electronic device from an oblique direction, for example, there is a possibility that the vibrator provided on the rear surface of the touch panel is visually observed by the user. In this case, reflection of externally incident light on a surface of the vibrator may give a sense of discomfort, such as glare, to the user.
To prevent a sense of discomfort, such as glare, from being given to a user, it is necessary to dispose a vibrator at a position where the vibrator is not visually observed by a user even when the user looks into the electronic device from an oblique direction. In this mode, however, a non-operation area of the electronic device increases, which results in an increase in size in a lateral direction of the electronic device.